L'ordre et le désordre

Le politique en anthropologie

Victor Pereira Da Rosa & Jean Lapointe
University of Ottawa

L'objectif central de cet ouvrage est de fournir aux étudiants et étudiantes en anthropologie politique un outil pédagogique qui, à notre avis, vient combler un vide dans l'enseignement supérieur en langue française. Ce volume est l'aboutissement des expériences didactiques des auteurs qui, depuis longtemps, ont été responsables des cours et des séminaires dans ce domaine à l'Université d'Ottawa. Ce travail de synthèse incorpore des idées et des réactions de cohortes étudiantes qui ont élu l'étude du politique comme part de leur formation.

L'anthropologie politique prend de plus en plus d'ampleur aussi bien dans le champ des études ethnologiques que dans celui des sciences politiques. Les auteurs tentent d'en cerner les notions fondamentales de pouvoir, gouvernement et leadership dans une perspective comparative.

Cette analyse tient compte des différentes formes d'organisation sociale qui ont cours dans l'univers ethnographique (bandes, tribus, chefferies et États). Une discussions des principales orientations théoriques qui ont marque le développement de l'anthropologie politique est présentée succinctement. Dans les dernières sections, on étudie des cas particuliers tels que la mondialisation et la souveraineté des nations amérindiennes.

ISBN 9783895866487. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 01. 168pp. 2000.

Perspectives culturelles: une introduction à l'anthropologie sociale

Victor Pereira Da Rosa & Jean Lapointe
Université d' Ottawa

Le but principal de ce manuel est de faire le point sur les grandes composantes de l'entreprise anthropologique, dans une perspective nord-américaine et destinée a l'enseignement universitaire en français. Réunissant des notes et des recherches que les auteurs ont accumulées au cours de leurs années a l'Université d'Ottawa, cet ouvrage se veut une synthèse des champs et des orientations des différents discours en anthropologie.

Les discussions présentées dans les diverses sections sont étayées sur les approches théoriques et méthodologiques les plus représentatives. On explore ici les thèmes traditionnels couverts dans la plupart des cours de cette discipline. De cette façon, les dimensions culturelles, économiques, politiques, psychologiques, esthétiques et religieuses de la condition humaine sont étudiées tour à tour. De nombreuses références ethnographiques sont utilisées afin d'illustrer les concepts analytiques. Autant les questions abondantes à la fin de chaque section que la bibliographie extensive facilitent les apprentissages et l'approfondissement de la matière.

De plus, ce livre reflète une préoccupation avec les tensions exprimées dans les débats entre les interprétations de la pensée classique et les apports contemporains.

ISBN 9783895866531. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 02. 2001.

Language, Culture and the Individual: A Tribute to Paul Friedrich

Edited by Catherine O’Neil (University of Denver), Mary Scoggin (Humboldt State University), Kevin Tuite (Université de Montréal)

This volume presents a ground-breaking collection of essays inspired by the work of linguist, anthropologist and poet Paul Friedrich. The core of this collection is the dramatic and creative connection between language and culture: linguaculture. Each essay relates language at its most technical to culture in its most intangible forms. The work represented here is based upon long-term immersion in multiple dimensions of culture, from the hallowed interiors of intellectual life to everyday encounters and observations. Balance between these two perspectives – objective and analytical systematicity on the one hand and human affect and individuality on the other – unify these works. Another specific bond is a hallmark of Paul Friedrich’s method: a faithfully microscopic eye for detail combined with a panoramic vision of the cultural context as a whole. In keeping with Paul Friedrich’s intellectual legacy, this collection is not grounded in, nor contained by, any single academic discipline. It is, rather, informed by a sensibility to the complex and multilayered interplay of the domains of human thought, perception and activity that we conventionally label “language” and “culture.” Among the contributors to this volume are specialists in comparative literature, Slavic studies and Classics; poets, translators, literary critics, a professional singer and an avant-garde painter.

Table of Contents :

Anthropology on the Borderlines:
Eclecticism and Synthesis in the Work of Paul Friedrich,1
John Attinasi

Romanticism, Meaning and Science
Murray J. Leaf

Performative Symbols and their Relative Non-Arbitrariness: Representing Women in Iranian Traditional Theater
William O. Beeman

The Neglected Poetics of Ideophony
Janis B. Nuckolls

Sense and Sensuality in Sound Symbolic Meaning
Ellen Zimmerman

Figuring out what an accent is: The short, personal history of an idea
Bonnie Urciuoli

Thick Translation: Three Soundings
John Leavitt

Seven Ways of Looking at Old Man Sage
Jeffrey D. Anderson

Reputation and Deliberate History in Saga Iceland
David Koester

Aztec Skins and Inca Bodies: An Exercise in Comparative Semiotics1
Hajime Nakatani

The Meaning of Dæl. Symbolic and Spatial Associations of the South Caucasian Goddess of Game Animals
Kevin Tuite

Language and the Religion of Politics in Chiapas
N. Louanna Furbee

The Tragedy of Words: Human Agency and Some Chinese Doubts
Mary Scoggin

Generosity. A Story from Urban Siberia, 1990-1992
Dale Pesmen

Urban Myths and Street Children: Coping with Cultural and Environmental Hazards Clementine Fujimura

“I Know You, What You Were” The use and abuse of ‘tradition’ in interpreting ancient Greek poetry
A. P. David

Why Did Tolstoy Hate King Lear?
Katia Mitova

Translation as Interpretation: Vasily Zhukovsky’s Two Translations of Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
Catherine O’Neil

Poetry and Music in the Structure of the Novel Pobezhdennye (The Defeated) by Irina Golovkina (Rimskaia-Korsakova)
Maria Pavlovszky

Kafka’s Sympathetic Irony. Grappling with Paul Friedrich’s double entendre1
Malynne Sternstein

Chinese Polytropes
Jean DeBernardi

Verbal Art, Politics, and Personal Style in Highland New Guinea and Beyond
Alan Rumsey

ISBN 9783895867194 (Hardbound). Lincom Studies in Anthropology 03. pp.372. 2005.

African Anthroponymy

An Ethnopragmatic and Morphophonological Study of Personal Names in Akan and Some African Societies

Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Indiana University, Bloomington

Names in African cultures are pointers to their users' hopes, dreams and aspirations; they may reflect their users' geographical environments, their fears, their religious beliefs, and their philosophy of life and death. Children's names may even provide insights into important cultural or socio-political events at the time of their birth. The circumstances surrounding a childs birth may be considered when a name is being chosen.

Factors such as the day of the week of the birth, the time of day (dawn, morning, dusk, afternoon, evening, night), the season of the year, the order of birth, the location a person is born, the specific circumstances relating to the child and to the childs family, the attitude of the parents as well as the gender of the child all play significant roles in the overall naming process and in the actual name given. If one's parents suffer or suffered from child or infant mortality, one is likely to have a funny, survival or death-prevention name believed to be capable of preventing and/or eliminating totally such deaths since it has the power of preventing parents in the underworld from causing the death of such children. Names in African societies may even be important indicator(s) of the bearers behavior and as pointers to the name-bearers' past, present, and future accomplishments. Personal names in Sub-Saharan Africa are therefore not mere labels showing which person (particularly, which father) is responsible for a childs birth. There is also a close identity between the name and the name bearer such that the name links to the name-givers overall experiences. Structurally, African names range from single words, phrases, and sentences, to units larger than the sentence.

Ethnopragmatically, African personal names may involve indirectness and implicitness. They may thus be indirect reactions to problematic situations in the lives of the name-bearers, their parents or their communities at large. The greater the communicative difficulty involved in the circumstances surrounding the name-givers world, the more indirectness involved. The indirection and ambiguity involved in African naming traditions may be due to the consequences of candor and hence the need to have an escape route should the name-givers be questioned by powerful elders or superiors.

Table of Contents:

Some Important Terminologies
Introduction

Chapter 1 Day, Time, and Seasonal Antroponyms
Chapter 2 Birth Circumstances Anthroponyms
Chapter 3 Proverbial Names
Chapter 4 Political Anthroponyms
Chapter 5 Survival Names
Chapter 6 Hypocoristic (Pet) Names
Chapter 7 Religious Names

Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

ISBN 9783895864315. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 08. 2001.

Ethnography and Folklore of the Georgia-Chechnya Border

Images, Customs, Myths & Folk Tales of the Peripheries

Shorena Kurtsikidze & Vakhtang Chikovani
University of California, Berkeley

The aim of this book is to acquaint a wide audience with the traditional culture of the Christian and Muslim highlanders who live on the border of Europe and Asia in the central part of the Caucasus Main Mountain Range. Under one cover, the publication features unique materials on visual anthropology, ethnography, mythology, and folklore of the region.

The book portrays the mysterious subgroup of Georgian highlanders, the Khevsur, who are considered to be the champions of Georgian patriotism and at the same time, according to one popular theory, are believed to be direct descendants of the last Crusaders.

Featuring 158 black and white original photographs and accompanying explanatory texts, the publication gives a detailed description of the exotic religious institutions and examples of material culture of this group of highlanders, illustrating the closeness of their lifestyle to the ways of the Frankish crusaders. The emphasis is on the spheres of folk culture that bear clear traces of centuries of confrontations between two ethnic groups: Christian Georgian highlanders and their neighbors, Muslim Vainakh or Chechen and Ingush. The authors attempt to show how the traditional mode of life of the highlanders affects the contemporary ethnic and political situation in the region.

The publication includes original translations of Georgian folk tales and myths. The latter are narratives representing mythologized chronicles of “holy wars” of old times once carried out on the border of Europe and Asia by the ancestors of the Khevsurs.

Shorena Kurtsikidze and Vakhtang Chikovani are cultural anthropologists and natives of Georgia. They have been teaching the Georgian language, culture, and folklore courses at the University of California, Berkeley. Both authors are affiliates of the Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies at the same university and regularly give talks and public lectures about Georgia and the Caucasus.

ISBN 9783895863288 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 09. 730pp. 158 photographs. 2008.

Les Minorités face à la Globalisation

enrichissements, ethnocides ou ethnothanasies?

La culture des Bantu-Masangu du Gabon entre tradition et modernisme

Daniel Franck Idiata
Université de Libreville, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique du Gabon

Cet ouvrage s’interroge, en se fondant sur la culture des Bantu-Masangu (Gabon), une minorité d'environ 30.000 à 40.000 individus, sur la mise en œuvre des arguments souvent invoqués pour dynamiser la préservation de la diversité culturelle dans un contexte de mondialisation croissante des économies. Il propose d'excellentes données de terrains sur les fondements culturels des Bantu-Masangu, à savoir, la vision du monde, les salutations, les rites initiatiques, les structures de parenté, les stratégies matrimoniales, l’attribution du nom à l’enfant, la perception et le traitement de la maladie, la conception et la gestion du temps et les technologies traditionnelles de chasse et de pèche. L'ouvrage se termine par une discussion sur la signification et la portée du concept de "diversité culturelle" dans le sens d'une réelle prise en compte des cultures des minorités comme socle de développement économique et social. L'auteur défend la vision d'une mondialisation véritablement représentative des diversités en s'appuyant sur l'importance des droits formellement reconnus dans la "Déclaration universelle des droit de l'homme" ainsi que dans la "Déclaration de l'Unesco sur la diversité culturelle".

Ces textes fondateurs garantissent (1) le droit fondamental de tout individu de participer à la vie culturelle de sa communauté et sur celui de toute collectivité culturelle de préserver son identité et (2) la préservation de la diversité culturelle qui doit prendre appui sur l’apport marqué de l’identité et de la créativité culturelles au développement économique des États.

Daniel Franck IDIATA est Professeur de linguistique à l’Université de Libreville. Il mène, au sein du Groupe de recherche en Langues et Cultures Orales (GRELACO), une recherche sur l’acquisition du langage chez les enfants, le développement des langues, les politiques linguistiques et la valorisation des cultures traditionnelles gabonaises. Il est auteur de plusieurs ouvrages dont "Eléments de psycholinguistique des langues Bantu", "Francophonie et politiques linguistique en Afrique noire" et "L'Afrique dans le système Licence-Master-Doctorat : la réforme de toutes les révolutions".

ISBN 9783929075601. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 10. 183pp. 2009.

Ethnobotany and Aztec sexuality

José Antonio Flores Farfán & Jan G.R.Elferink
CIESAS, Mexico City; University of Leiden

The Aztecs had two main approaches to modulate sexuality and procreation. On the one hand, Aztecs conceived magic and religion as dominating all aspects of life including sexuality and procreation. On the other hand, they knew the active properties of many plants and other natural sources which they used to stimulate or inhibit sexual drive, to procure abortion, to facilitate childbirth and to treat diseases connected with sexuality, pregnancy and childbirth. Plants were even applied by prostitutes, not only to enhance the sexual activity, but to procure good luck. This book gives a complete picture of Aztec sexuality and a profound discussion of the plants which were used to modulate sexuality.

The authors draw on their deep interest and extensive experience on Aztec medicinal ethnobotany and Nahuatl linguistics to unravel a number of poorly treated related topics in a systematic, unprecedented way. Because of the many references to the original, first hand, primary sources, including codices and colonial documents, this book will appeal to anyone seriously interested in Aztec language (Nahuatl) and culture or in the history of sexuality, including scholars who are studying a subject in which Aztec sexuality is directly or indirectly involved.

1. Introduction
Scope
Sources

2. Aztec attitude towards sexuality and ethnobotany
Sexuality
Ethnobotany
Religion, sexuality and plants

- Tlazolteotl
- Toci
- Xochiquetzal
- Xochipilli - Macuilxochitl
- Other gods associated with sexuality
- Plants as divine beings

3. Fertility and sterility
The importance of fertility
Plants for fertility
Plants and sterility
Anaphrodisiacs
Birth-control

4. Aphrodisiacs
Plants as aphrodisiacs
Animals as aphrodisiacs
Hallucinogens and aphrodisiacs

5. Prostitution
General aspects
The female prostitute
Religion and prostitution
Male prostitution
Ethnobotany and prostitution

- Tzictli
- Teonanacatl
- Poyomatli
- Coapatli, coanenepilli

6. Diseases and sexuality
General aspects
Nanahuatl (“mal de las bubas”, syphilis)
Diseases of the genitals
Diseases due to illicit love
Plants against miscellaneous diseases

7. Abortion
Abortion and culture
Prevention and care after abortion
Illegal abortion and abortifacient plants

8. Pregnancy and childbirth
The midwife
Women’s diseases
Pregnancy and delivery

- Precautions during pregnancy
- Delivery
- Troubles after delivery

Magic and birth
Ceremonies in relation with birth and early childhood
Plants of special importance in connection with childbirth and delivery

- Cihuapatli
- Picietl
- Yauhtli
- Iztauhyatl

Nahuatl (and other indigenous) plant names

Latin plant names

Glossary of non-plant Nahuatl words

References

ISBN 9783895861628. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 11. 138pp. 2010.

Tra mito e nazione

Storia e antropologia della Georgia contemporanea

Aldo Castellani

Lo scontro tra la Russia e la Georgia dell’estate del 2008, punta dell’iceberg dei rapporti tesissimi tra i due paesi, dà il via a un’indagine approfondita sulle intricate vicende storiche della Georgia. Il punto di vista scelto è quello, assai delicato, della costituzione del concetto di “nazione” e dei rapporti tra le diverse etnie che compongono la popolazione del paese caucasico.

L’operazione di scrittura è stata preceduta da viaggi compiuti nelle aree piú desolate e dimenticate della Georgia, dove mi è capitato spesso di sentirmi rivolgere la domanda piú temuta da tutti i viaggiatori: “Che ci fai qui?”. Mi veniva da rispondere che ero lí per tentare di scrivere la verità. Allora alcuni, delusi, replicavano che non ci può essere spazio per la verità. Cosí, questo libro, pur con tutte le sue inevitabili mancanze e difetti, cerca di dare un contributo alla riflessione sul concetto di verità.

Aldo Castellani, nato a Firenze nel 1967, ha trascorso quattro anni nel Caucaso, dove ha insegnato Lingua e Letteratura Italiana all’Università di Tbilisi e ha collaborato come inviato con riviste e siti internet. Nel 2008 ha pubblicato presso Rubbettino Storia della Cecenia. Memoria, tradizioni e cultura di un popolo del Caucaso. Per Lincom ha pubblicato nel 2009 un sistema pratico di classificazione dei verbi georgiani.

INDICE: Introduzione L’EUROPA DELLE OCCASIONI PERDUTE? Parte I IL BROCCATO DELL’ARAZZO RUSSO - Abkhazi - Armeni - Azeri - Greci del Pontop - Meskheti - Osseti - Russi - Altri gruppi etno-linguistici. Parte II AI MARGINI DEL MONDO: IL PENSIERO FILOSOFICO E RELIGIOSO GEORGIANO. Parte III IL TRASFERIMENTO DEI MITI DI ORIGINE CULTURALE IN AMBITO POLITICO. La lunga notte di caos - L’epoca della volpe bianca - Velluti e rose - Dove sorge il sole.

ISBN 9783862880096. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 12. 265pp. 2010 (written in Italian). 2011.

Zur Typologie der jenissejischen Protokultur

(nach sprachlichen und mythologischen Daten)

Heinrich Werner

Der Charakter der jenissejischen Protokultur lässt sich am besten durch die Mythologie und den Wortschatz des rekonstruierten Protojenissejischen ermitteln. Da sich die sprachliche Nomination nicht nur der Umwelt, sondern auch allen Veränderungen im Leben der menschlichen Gemeinschaft anpasst, widerspiegelt der Wortschatz eindeutig das gesamte materielle wie geistige Kulturgut der entsprechenden Protoethnie, das man nach bestimmten kulturell-typologischen Merkmalen einer chronologischen Kulturepoche (Mesolithikum, Neolithikum oder einer noch späteren Epoche - der Bronze- oder Eisenzeit) zuordnen kann.

Die typologische Charakteristik der Protokultur ermöglicht somit eine präzise Überprüfung der bislang vorgeschlagenen sprachlichen Parallelen, insbesondere der Wortgleichungen, zwischen den Jenissej-Sprachen und anderen Sprachfamilien im Hinblick auf historische sprachlich-kulturelle interethnische Kontakte oder eine gemeinsame genetische Urquelle.

Inhalt

Vorwort
Transkription
Abkürzungen
1 Einleitung
1.1 Die Jenissejer - ein ethno-linguistisches Rätsel Sibiriens
1.2 Zum prähistorischen Hintergrund
1.3 Die mesolithische Epoche in Nordeurasien
1.4 Zum Problem der geographischen Urheimat der Jenissejer
1.5 Zum Problem der Vorfahren der Jenissejer
2 Hauptzüge der jenissejischen Protokultur (nach den primären kulturellen Merkmalen)
2.1 Wirtschaftsweise und das ursprüngliche materielle Kulturgut
2.2 Jenissejische Urgesellschaft
2.3 Geistige Protokultur. Traditionelle Glaubens Vorstellungen
2.4 Uralter Adler-und Hirsch-bzw. Rentierkult
2.5 Gewerbliche Glaubensarten der Jenissejer
2.4 Zusammenfassung
3 Zu den typologischen kulturellen Parallelen
3.1 Jenissejisch-uralische kulturelle Parallelen
3.2 Die Jenissejer und die türkischen Völker Südsibiriens
3.3 Die Jenissejer und die Indianerwelt Nordamerikas
3.4 Jenissejisch-sinotibetische kulturelle Parallelen
4 Sekundäre Merkmale der jenissejischen Kultur
4.1 Kulturelle Innovationen im Leben der Jenissejer
4.2 Jenissejisch-indogermanische Wortparallelen
4.3 Jenissejisch-germanische Wortparallelen
4.4 Türkische Entlehnungen in den Jenissej-Sprachen
5 Schlussbetrachtungen
6 Literaturverzeichnis

ISBN 9783862880201. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 13. 191S. 2010.

Jeroky Porã. Juegos, saberes y experiencias infantiles mbyá-guaraní en Misiones

Noelia Enriz
Universidad de Buenos Aires

Jeroky Porã es la frase con la que madres mbyá guaraní estimulan la participación de los niños y niñas en las danzas que se desarrollan en las ceremonias religiosas. El texto aborda las experiencias cotidianas de los niños mbyá, en tres zonas particulares de la provincia de Misiones (Argentina). Se propone dar cuenta de los ámbitos diferenciales de producción y circulación de saber y conocimiento que estos niños experimentan, teniendo como eje central las diferencias entre aquellos que acceden o no a la escolaridad. En tal sentido, se distinguen las experiencias religiosas, las que se desarrollan en el ámbito escolar y aquellas del entorno doméstico.

Desde las categorías nativas se abordan la organización cotidiana del tiempo de los niños mbyá. Por un lado se desarrollan las dimensiones sociales otorgadas al juego y las prácticas asociadas a éste, mientras que por otro lado se vinculan las categorías nativas etarias y las prácticas socialmente admitidas en cada instancia. El texto aborda a su vez, las particularidades de la población mbyá en la provincia de Misiones y en el contexto general. Por último ofrece una apuesta metodológica particular enmarcada en la antropología de la niñez.

ISBN 9783862880379. LINCOM Studies in Anthropology 14. 279pp. 2011.